


Myral

by nerdiekatie



Series: Voltron Ficlets [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Trans Character, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Male Character, and little bit of klunk, mild gore and injury, zarkon and keith's mom are siblings!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-09-26 06:19:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9871211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdiekatie/pseuds/nerdiekatie
Summary: from sarah--berry on tumblr (sarah--berry.tumblr.com)has anyone considered that keith and zarkon could be related? like what if keith’s mom was related to zarkon somehow… siblings… who both piloted lions…there is really no reason for this to be true but what if





	1. In the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> from sarah--berry on tumblr (sarah--berry.tumblr.com)
> 
> "has anyone considered that keith and zarkon could be related? like what if keith’s mom was related to zarkon somehow… siblings… who both piloted lions…there is really no reason for this to be true but what if"
> 
> Me: 
> 
> "ooh
> 
> mom kogane (aka. zarkon’s big sis) sees the warning signs and helps start the resistance behind zarkon’s back
> 
> zarkon finds out. steals the red lion from his sister. she’s cryofrozen for succession reasons until lotor’s mother becomes pregnant, at which point she becomes a threat to the succession. 
> 
> the resistance finds out, mom kogane is rescued and freed. 
> 
> mom kogane is checking on the location of the lions. zarkon has the red one, she knows, but if the resistance can find the other four lions and pilots for them, they have a reason to rescue the red lion. 
> 
> mom kogane finds the blue lion and dad kogane. they have keith. mom kogane leaves her human looking child on earth, so she can help the resistance and also not be giant fucking beacon leading her brother to an as yet untouched world, her son, and the blue lion. that would be a disaster."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Myral notices her baby brother Zarkon is acting weird

Voltron feels wrong. 

Voltron feels like a room looks when the furniture has all been shifted an inch to left. 

Myral can feel it coming from Zarkon; her brother has been spending more time with the Black Lion, lately. She thought they were getting closer, but today Myral can feel their bond when they form Voltron; it’s as close as it’s always been, but it’s too _tight_.

Myral looks for him when he comes out of his lion. He should have the same tightness written on his forehead, he should be concerned. 

He’s smiling. 

That’s when she realizes: Zarkon hasn’t dropped his smile for weeks.  

She is the red paladin; like her lion, she relies on her instincts.  Something is wrong with her brother, and she feels it at the very center of her quintessence.

* * *

Myral is second in line to the throne and the red paladin to boot. She has her own eyes and ears. All rumors make their way to her. Most are benign. The Duchesses of Drear are looking for an heir. The head of Dismay, Inc. would be buying a patent. Other rumors are worrisome. 

The Altean Zarkon sponsored to the Druids was almost removed from the order. The Druid in Myral’s employ will only say Haggar was doing “dark experiments,” and that Zarkon had to personally interfere to prevent Haggar’s banishment. 

More troops are being sent to the colonies. A close look at the budget reveals an increase in military spending. The captains being sent have had recent and quick promotions; their academy records have been sealed. When Myral sees them, she finds disciplinary action for violence. 

Galra Military and Intelligence personnel are getting restless at the upheaval. Doom has been at peace for years. Commander Jorok is particularly vocal. Myral has a word with him, and he quiets.

* * *

Zarkon and the Black Lion’s bond has gotten so tight, it’s brittle. Myral feels Red Lion’s worry in the back of her mind. She thinks they’re the only ones who can feel it. 

Why? 

* * *

“We maintain peace through strength. Compromise is a sign of weakness. Weakness is an infection. Better to cut it off than let it spread.” 

 Myral wonders if anyone else is hearing what she’s hearing. 

They haven’t. Alfor, ever the ambassador, stopped listening at _we maintain peace through strength_. He’s heard that a hundred times. They all have. To the other paladins, Zarkon is just being Zarkon, and they need not listen any further. 

But Myral sits stunned at the negotiation table, _better to cut it off_  ringing in her ears. That’s new. 

As is the look on Zarkon’s face when Alfor ignores him in favor of the Izonian party. 

* * *

Myral begins discretely looking at star maps. She tells Zarkon she’s thinking about building a vacation home.

* * *

Immigrants and off-worlders are quietly deported from Doom. No records of travel are kept. The galatic newsroom is promoting the benefits of living on the colonies. Myral cannot go a week without hearing _weakness is an infection, better cut it off than let it spread._

Myral receives pictures of colony natives being forced into mining camps, then of space stations, battleships, and ion cannons. 

* * *

Myral and the Red Lion cannot fly without the sound of the Black Lion’s keening in their ears. 

* * *

Arjus is a kitchen servant. Myral approves her request for indefinite leave to care for her ailing parents. It’s tragic that a transportation accident ends her life before she arrives home. Myral decides to ensure her parents’ care in Arjus’s memory. 

Arjus is Myral’s best spy. Her parents died years ago. She arrives on Marmora with a plumber, a tailor, a small fund, and a secure comm number for Commander Jorok.  

* * *

The next time the Castle of the Lions lands on Doom, Myral is forced to blow her cover. Alfor escapes with the Castle and the Black Lion. 

Zarkon is strong, but Myral has always been the better fighter. She might have won, if not for the deranged Druid that follows in her brother’s shadow. 

Instead, Myral lays panting at her brother’s feet. She twitches from lingering quintessetic lightning. The open flesh of one of her wounds sticks and unsticks from the floor with the rise and fall of her chest. _Quiznak_ , she hadn’t know Haggar’s nails could _do_ that. 

Myral has lost. She doesn’t know how far the other paladins will make it before Zarkon and his fleet arrive, but she hopes she’s bought them enough time.

Zarkon hasn’t even manifested his bayard. He’s going to order her killed, she realizes. He won’t even do it himself.  She looks at his dispassionate yellow eyes- just like their father’s- and mourns for her baby brother. She taught him to read and fly. She had wiped away his tears and given him synthus-back rides. Together, they had run, giggling, from the castellan when they tracked in dirt from the gardens. Their mother had _tut-tutted_ the state of their fur. 

They shared a paladin bond, so Myral knows he loved her at one point. Myral doesn’t know if that love is lost, or if he’s somehow able to reconcile loving her with ordering her death. 

“I’m disappointed in you,” he tells her. “There’s so much we were going to do together.”

“Do it,” he says to Haggar, but what Haggar does to her isn’t death, it’s worse. 

Myral can’t tell her screams apart from her Lion’s. She’s being pulled apart from herself, further, and further, and further. Myral can feel her Lion’s heat as they try and cling to each other, but every molecule of their shared quintessence twists and stretches until-

They break. 

In the aftermath, Myral is as shattered as their bond, unaware of everything but settling and stilling of the shards. 

Her last conscious thought is that she’s cold. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the throne of doom is inherited by male primogeniture, so Myral is passed over in favor of her brother Zarkon.  
> Also, yes, Zarkon is very greedy. He's already King and he wants to be emperor. Dickweed.


	2. In Media Res

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Myral meets Ryou Kogane  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for misgendering, but it's bb Keith

The alien is staring at her. She sits on his sofa, breathing in the dry air of this biosphere.

Ten thousands years of cryofreezing left Myral with cold in her bones. It had been unshakeable until she got to this planet. She had burned on entry, and the part of the planet she had crashed on is dry, hot desert. When Myral was bonded to the Red Lion, she was always warm. For that alone, the change is not unwelcome, but Myral is suffocating in her own fur while this alien makes up its mind about whether it’s going to speak or not.

Already, he has rescued both her and her ship and hidden both from his government. The sling around her arm and the bandages on her leg speak to his care. This planet’s public is not yet aware of other sentient life. According to the alien, his government hides any sign of first contact and forcibly seizes any beings who come to their territory.

Myral appreciates the risk he is undertaking; she does not appreciate his silence.

“Your brother started an evil galactic empire, and you’re looking for a giant blue mechanical lion.”

Myral thinks his flat inflection means means that he is displeased. It’s hard to tell. After ten thousand years of linguistic development, she couldn’t even understand modern Galran until the Blade of Marmora had given her a translator. She wonders if Zarkon has the same troubles.

Regardless of whether or not the alien is pleased, he seems to be committed to helping her. That is the best news of Myral’s day.

* * *

If Myral’s bond with the Red Lion was intact, Myral could have found the Blue Lion within a single solar cycle.

Myral’s bond with the Red Lion is not intact. Myral’s bond with the Red Lion was shattered ten thousand years ago, and she is trying to use the dust of it to find a Lion that isn’t hers.

Fortunately, Ryou Kogane is a patient man. Myral does not know if her presence disrupts his life. He has mentioned that he is a tracker of beings his government conceals from its people (she presumes he means to rescue them as he did her), but he continues to help her as her search for the Blue Lion drags on.

Myral cannot go out in the day for fear of being seen, so she decides to follow the whispy stirring at her fingertips across the plateaus and canyons of Ryou Kogane’s desert at night.

Ryou Kogane says searching for the Blue Lion at night is better, anyway. He claims the day would be too hot.

Myral sees the truth of his claim within the first revolution of the planet. The desert at midday is hotter than the equator on Vryzax. Myral has to stop repairs on her ship when it becomes too hot to touch. She retreats inside, where she waits for Ryou Kogane to return from the town.

* * *

Her days become patterned, and as her search for the Blue Lion continues, Myral begins to think that the universe might be trying to apologize to her. Why else would it have sent her to Ryou Kogane?

Ryou Kogane is brilliant. Whenever he leaves to go to the town, he returns with a piece of Earth technology that he thinks will work in her ship. He’s right more often that he’s wrong, and the ship makes slow, unsteady progress as they guess their way through compatible technologies. There is a memorable afternoon where they manage to fry the whole console. Ryou Kogane brings wire for the next lunar cycle. After that, Ryou Kogane pulls her away from her work before she gets frustrated enough to rip her ship apart.  He introduces her to Earth music on his radio. It’s quaint to think that Earth still uses old technology like satellites for their transmissions, but the music is good. Ryou Kogane likes the music with the _guitar_ and the accents like his. (Myral learns from listening to music the Ryou Kogane has an accent.) Myral tries to sing him a song about sunrise on the polar cap, but she’s not a good singer and she’s forgotten half the words.

Without Ryou Kogane, Myral would get lost in the desert expanse of his planet. Learning how to tell apart the plateaus around his home is difficult for her. Ryou Kogane tells her to stop for the night when they find themselves at another dead end in Beulriz’s maze of carvings. On those nights, they sit down on his front steps, and he teaches her the names of his planet’s constellations. Myral is grateful. These stranger-stars seems friendlier when they have names.

When they find the blue paladin’s final resting place, far away from their Lion, he marks on it his map. The next night, Myral and Ryou Kogane bring desert flowers and lay them at Beulriz’s head.  

Ryou Kogane laughs when her nail accidentally scratches his face, bisecting his eyebrow and narrowly missing his eye. It scars, and Ryou Kogane says he’s always wanted a scar to impress the ladies. He winks at her when he says it, and Myral has to hold her ears still.

Ryou Kogane teaches her to cook Earth food. Myral does not like the food they eat with their hands. It sticks to the fur between her fingers, and she wastes water trying to wash it out. The night they eat _bulgogi_ _,_ Myral tries to explain the taste of synthus meat and halyt spices.

Ryou Kogane listens when Myral talks about waking up cold and confused to a language she can’t understand anymore. He listens as Myral talks about how she wishes her brother had just killed her the first time, rather than keeping her around she could have her brother kill her twice. Myral talks about Thace and Ulaz and how very proud she is of Arjus’s Blades, but how frustrated she is that they dismiss Voltron as a useless relic.

Ryou Kogane rubs the perfect spot behind her ears when it’s just the two of them on the sofa listening to _country_ music, and Myral falls in love.

* * *

It takes Myral nearly eighteen of Earth’s lunar cycles to find the caves where Beulriz had hidden the Blue Lion. Beulriz was a cryptic Kadje, whose writing went in a circle around the cave. Myral laughed when she read it. The Blue Lion was right below her, and anybody but her paladin would find themselves stuck in the cave above, going around in circles to follow Beulriz’s nonsense.

By that time, Myral is too late in her pregnancy to leave.

Myral worries that she will lose the child. She knows nothing about the compatibility of their species. Conception had been implausible; a live birth will be miraculous.

Myral tries to plan for a future in which her child lives. They will have to leave Earth. Myral has already stayed too long, and every new rotation increases the chance she, her child, and the Blue Lion will be found by Zarkon or Ryou Kogane’s government.

She and the child will have to leave Ryou Kogane on Earth. Aliens are not accepted into the Blade of Marmora.

She will have to raise the child in the resistance, or Zarkon will find them and kill them both. She does not know how it will work, only that it must work.

Myral spends her pregnancy trying not to mourn moments that have not yet come to pass. Instead, she spends them on the fronts steps with Ryou Kogane, learning his stars as _country_ music drifts out in the cool desert night.

* * *

The day the baby arrives is the second time in her life Myral’s heart breaks.

Her only fur is on her head. Her skin is pale. Her ears are round. Her nails are blunt.

And she is small, so very small, smaller than Myral could have ever imagined. Her child can fit in one of her hands, and yet, when her father takes her from Myral, the baby takes up the entire length of her father’s forearm.

She is the spitting image of her human father. She looks nothing like Myral.

Nothing like a Galra.

Her daughter will have to stay on Earth.

Myral has not prepared for this.

* * *

Whatever Myral might have named her child is irrelevant. She looks human. She should have a human name, and the fact is, Myral knows nothing of human naming conventions.

Ryou Kogane refuses to understand. He insists that Myral help name their child, regardless of how obviously alien that name would be on Earth.

But this is the same man who persists in his believe that their daughter has Myral’s chin and Myral’s cheeks and eyes the color of Myral’s fur. Myral loves him for saying it, even though he’s wrong.

* * *

Myral leaves as soon as she is recovered from the birth. It is safer this way.

As she climbs into her ship, she looks back at her daughter and Ryou Kogane on the steps of the house where she has spent nearly two years.

She will never see her grow, she realizes. She will never teach her to read or fly. Ryou Kogane will never even be able to tell their daughter about her. Myral is suddenly, fiercly sad that she cannot even give her child a _name_.

Her hand brushes her knife. 

She scrambles down from her ship, running across the dirt to embrace her family one last time. She pulls her luxite blade from the sheath at her hip and presses it into Ryou Kogane’s free hand.

“The Blade of Marmora does not accept aliens. This is proof of her heritage, if she ever finds his way to us. I can give her this much.”

* * *

The moment that Myral has dreaded for months comes to pass.

She leaves her family on the front steps. She gets her ship into clear space and opens up a wormhole.

On the other side, she mourns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of like the idea that Ryou Kogane would name bb Keith something like Mira or Mara, because they're close to "Myral." Just something else to connect him back to his mother.  
> And of course, Ryou Kogane is a decent person, so when bb Keith is all "I'm a boy," Ryou Kogane is all, "Of course you are son!"
> 
> so cherryandsisters.tumblr.com has some AMAZING art of mom kogane  
> http://cherryandsisters.tumblr.com/post/157099415334/a-furry-a-farmer-and-their-emo-son-i-got-a-bunch  
> and they've definitely influence how I see Myral so go check them out they're so skilled like woah


	3. In Perpetuam

Damn this ship. Myral beats on the console as her wormhole flickers closed before she can reach it. Her engines might as well be held together with Earth Duck Tape, and they’re not going to get her to safety before a fleet is sent out to investigate here. Her teludav is undoubtedly broken again. She’s not surprised since she’s been burning through scaltrite faster than she can get it. Her hull is a mass of mismatched metal, and every atmospheric entry and exit of the last eighteen years increasing the damage. In short, she is a sitting du-flax.

She hits the console again, for good measure. Quiznak this. The rest of the resistance is already gone with the rescued prisoners. They won’t know she’s missing until the end of this quintant, and she’s not worth the resources it would take to rescue her.

Her proximity alarm starts blaring. One of the Empire’s fighter ships is coming up on her wing. Her ship jerks as she pushes it to _move_. Myral grits her teeth against the shaking of the ship. Her engine splutters out mid-maneuver, and Myral is left with a perfect view of the enemy ship closing in for the kill through her windshield.

She brushes her fingers over the teludav ignition. It might not create a wormhole anymore, but if she overloads it, she can create an explosion large enough to take out the other ship. She just needs them to hold off on firing for another five halvian lengths.

Four.

Three.

Two.

Giant jaws close around the enemy ship. At this range, she can’t see the whole Lion- she can’t even see the whole head- as it rushes past her windshield. Myral watches the halves of the enemy ship flung back by her.

Myral’s ship shifts as the Blue Lion grabs her in turn, albeit far more gently. Her view is nearly obscured by their jaws, but she can see that the Lion is taking her to the Castle of the Lions.

She supposes she will have to be doubly grateful to the new Team Voltron now. Once for the unexpected assistance in the resistance’s raid and rescue on this fleet, and once again for her personal rescue.

Safely within the Blue Spire, she (and her ship) are dropped delicately to the floor of the hangar. She very much hopes that the Red Paladin’s indifference to her species in the weblum was not a fluke. Otherwise, this will go very poorly.

Myral muses that she would like to see the Red Paladin again, if she has the chance. He was proficient in the weblum, but she would like to see what he can do against a real opponent (preferably, Myral). Maybe, if she’s especially fortunate, she will be able to see the Red Lion again.

Myral casually surveys the hangar. This Blue Paladin has not established himself here yet, but he will. Myral can tell because Beulriz’s things are absent. This is a good thing, but even after all these years, Myral feels a pang of sadness. She does not think she will ever cease her mourning, not in all the years she might live.

Like the Red Paladin in the weblum, the Blue Paladin is undeterred even though Myral is unmistakeably Galra. Myral relaxes. He greets Myral with enthusiasm, even, then exclaims as he sees her ship.

“Woah! Hunk, Pidge, we’re going to need you over here,” he says into his helmet. He turns to Myral. “It’s in pretty rough shape. You went out on a mission in a ship like this?” He whistles, impressed.

Myral feels vaguely offended on behalf of her ship, but the Blue Paladin is correct. Her ship is falling apart.

“It needed to be done,” she offers.

“Hey, no, don’t get me wrong,” he smiles widely, waving his hands and leaning heavily on one hip. “It was great to have your help out there. We didn’t even know there were other resistance cells! Unless you’re with the Blade of Marmora?”

Ah. They have already made contact with the Blade. It explains their easy acceptance of her species. This is good. They will need all the help they can get to defeat her brother.

“No, though I used to be. When I lost my blade, the Blade expelled me.” The blades were a tradition and a form of identification, so Myral understood the decision, even though it had caused her untold amounts of inconvenience. The Blue Paladin is not so forgiving.

“Dick move.”

It is of no importance to Myral. Leaving her blade with her child is the only decision Myral could have made. She will never regret it. In any case, she has done good and necessary work with _this_ resistance.

Her eyes flick to the door as more paladins enter the hanger. The Green Paladin carries a tool box half her size. The Green Paladin seems excited by the state of her ship. The Yellow Paladin looks like he’s seen a kicked yelmoor pup.

“What happened?” he asks, aghast. He then proceeds to ignore her, flitting about her ship with the Green Paladin. Myral watches, amused. It’s good to see Team Voltron so in sync

 “This is titanium,” the Yellow Paladin says, running fingers over her hull. They all take off their helmets at the same time to take a closer look, and Myral is faced with _three_ humans.

Myral is perplexed. Twenty years ago, the humans hadn’t even left their solar system. What are they doing here?

The last two paladins enter the hangar, with their helmets already off. Myral stares.

Before now, Myral has only ever seen one human; even so, she has always been good with faces, and the Black Paladin looks so similar to Ryou Kogane that even after twenty years, she would have to be blind not to see it. The similarity is so strong that Myral hurts to look him, and yet, she cannot seem to stop.

“Shiro, you’ve got to look at this!” The Green Paladin, the one with hair that threatened its own rebellion when she removed her helmet, beckons.

 _Shiro._ Perhaps it is a long shot. Perhaps she is being fanciful. But the Black Paladin looks so much like him, and Myral has nothing to lose.

“Are Ryou Kogane’s brother?” Myral asks, forwardly.  

The Black and Red Paladins look at her with different expressions of surprise. The Black Paladin’s is inquisitive and open. The Red Paladin’s face is closed off, even though his tense body language shows interest is tense as he resists openly orienting to her. Curious.

They share a glance before the Black Paladins answers, “Yes. How did you know?”

“You look very much like him.” She smiles wryly. “I crashed on Earth, years ago. Ryou Kogane sheltered me. He talked about you.”

“He did?” Shiro asks. He seems unexpectedly touched.

Myral nods.  A half-remembered moment comes back to her. “He said you disagreed on the veracity of the first landing on your moon.” That the Black Paladin hadn’t remembered this until Myral brought it up is clear. The memory seems fond to him.

“How is he?” Myral asks, not disguising the plaintiveness of her question. There would be no point other than pride, and pride has no place in a moment such as this.

“He’s been missing for years, presumed dead,” the black paladin admits hesitantly.

Myral’s world spins. There is the pounding of her heart, and the stillness of her lungs, and the last memory of her family overlaid by the worst of her imagination- Ryou Kogane’s government, Zarkon, wild desert dogs…

“His daughter?” Her voice breaks. Myral is standing upright only by coincidence.

“Me,” the red paladin says. The word is bitter in his mouth. Myral turns her head to look at him. The Red Paladin tilts his head defiantly, his jaw tightly set. “That’s me.”

If there ever was a stable spot in the universe, Myral has forgotten. She tumbles on all axes, while the Red Paladin stands as the only point of calm before her.

“Can it be?” She thinks she is already crying.

He only has twenty years, and somehow, he is already grown. He is larger than she left him, but he still seems so _small_. Smaller than his father, she’s sure of it. Myral has never envisioned her child grow, and he stands before her, defying her nonexistent expectations. Her heart jolts when she sees her knife at his hip. This _is_ the child she left behind.

The man in front of her (her _son_ ) nods. She has dreamt of him for years, of seeing him, of meeting him, but now that he is here, Myral trembles and cannot speak, not even to say who she is to him.

Someone is running. A voice calls her name from across the room.

It is Alfor’s daughter. She’s alive? Myral cannot comprehend so much happening at the one moment in time.

“You’re alive!” Allura exclaims, Myral stands numb as Allura embraces her.

Allura brightly turns to their silent audience.

“Keith, this is-“

“My mother,” Keith (her son, her son, her son’s name is Keith) interrupts.

“The original red paladin!” Allura falters as she finishes. She pauses. “Your _what_?”

* * *

 

Myral and her son tip toe around each other for the next several quintants. Myral does not know how to relate to her child who is a grown stranger. Keith, clearly, is similarly perplexed.

They do not sit next to each other at any meal, nor do they speak, although they greet each other when they pass in the hallway. If Myral passes time in the common area, Keith passes time in his bedroom. If Myral enters a room Keith is already in, they make stilted conversation until he can find a reason to leave.

Myral finds company with the others aboard the castleship. What Keith will not tell her about himself, the others will.

It is the first time Myral gets to know Allura properly for the first time. Myral has lost much, though not as much as Allura. Myral has lost her team and her Lion to the depravations of her own brother, who is also lost to her. Myral’s planet is a ruin, but her people survive. Her son survives.

It’s strange, without Alfor there as a buffer. His memory lingers between them, as does the memory of Allura’s planet and people, also lost at the hands of Myral’s brother. They find common ground first in Keith.

Allura’s assessment is clinical. Keith is a brilliant but reckless pilot, hotheaded with a tendency to disregard orders. He is much the same as a fighter. As a teammate, he is frequently distant, argumentative, and sometimes more a tactician than a friend.

“He’s a good man,” Allura adds at the end. Myral smiles.

Coran calls her _Princess_ Myral. Myral hasn’t been a princess in a long time, but she lets him cling to his protocol. Alfor lingers between the two of them, too, and Coran is kind enough to share what he knows of Alfor’s end.

Of Keith, he says, “Number Four? He’s a good lad, a bit testy. Why, one time-“ Myral sneaks off in the middle of his long-winded story that no longer has anything to do with her son.

Shiro actually seeks out Myral to tell her stories of Keith’s youth. Apparently, her son loved cryptids. He says Keith’s favorite was the Mothman. Shiro had apparently once gone on a camping trip with his brother and nephew to hunt for them. Ryou Kogane had hidden outside their shelter making strange lights and sounds to scare the boys.  Myral wonders what Keith would have made of the Mountain Edge Synthus-Galra, who stole hikers and dropped them off the Edge of the World.

Shiro does not say much about Ryou Kogane, other than that he was a good, if strange, man.

“I think you might explain some of it,” he says, laughing.

In return, Myral indulges Shiro’s curiosity. If her son cannot speak to her, perhaps he can learn about her from Shiro.

Myral accidentally finds Keith when she goes to speak with Hunk and Pidge (Earth names are so strange). He is laughing, his head bent near the Yellow Paladin’s. Myral hates that he loses his ease as soon as he registers her presence. He lingers though he contrives a reason to leave soon enough. He would have left sooner if Pidge had not held him to a promise of assistance. Myral then gets to witness her son acting a ladder for the littlest Paladin, holding Pidge up so she can reach the top of Myral’s ship. Hunk babbles at Myral about the progress of repairs, and Myral sees Keith bestow upon him a stiff smile- curled just at the edges- despite Myral’s presence and the Green Paladin’s foot on his head. Keith catches Pidge when she slips, though not neatly. The two of them nearly tumble to the ground. Myral makes a note of it against reports of her son’s distance from his teammates.  

The Blue Paladin (Lance, he tells her) is particularly talkative about her son. He says much the same as Allura- her son is brilliant but reckless pilot, a surly, hotheaded, protective teammate; but Lance has a look in his eyes when he talks about her son that Allura does not. Myral thinks of the times she’s seen them together. Keith brushes shoulders with Lance as often as he quips at him, even stiff and strained as everything is in Myral’s presence. She even thinks she can remember a small, brittle smile there, too.

The only time she sees Keith unguarded is when he trains. She was right; He is impressive when has a real opponent. In training, whatever distance there is between him and his teammates disappear. He guards their backs fiercely. He gets in the way, sometimes, blocks openings that his teammates could have taken, fixates when he thinks he has the kill. He is graceful, dancer-like when he fights.

Fights are measured in ticks. Each is a blessing for the continuation of your life, just each is curse for the continued peril. Myral feels each tick aboard the castleship pass thusly. She blesses each tick she has to learn about her son and curses each that passes away without their speaking.

Myral will have to leave when her ship is repaired. She has nearly twenty years with this resistance and a squadron of her own. She can’t abandon them. She has responsibilities. But Keith is her son. And her responsibility is to him too. (More importantly, at this moment, her heart is with him. But she cannot let that make all of her decisions.)

Keith has a right to do as he likes, but Myral will not leave without having extended her hand.

Keith has a predictable schedule, making it easy for Myral to choose her moment.  Myral finds him sparring against the gladiator on the training deck.

“Cancel program,” Myral calls out. Keith is too committed to his strike to stop, and his bayard clangs against the still gladiator.

“Why did you close the program?” He yells as he whips around, stopping short when he sees Myral.

“Spar with me.” Myral grabs a staff off the wall. Keith looks unsure, but he settles into a ready stance. Keith does not cautiously test his opponent; instead, he commits himself instantly to the fight. At the first contact of metal on metal, his eyes widen. Myral sweeps his blade aside, forcing him to spin with it, and catches him on his hip as he comes around. Myral grins at him, and he grins back, aiming high as he slashes. Keith moves like he was born to the fight, like this deadly dance is something he only had to remember rather than learn, but Myral is stronger and more experienced, and her weapon has the longer range. As long as she keeps him out from under her guard, she will win. Keith knows that, as well, and attempts to slide under it. It’s a clever move. Myral takes a step back, tapping the butt of her staff against his chest. It knocks the air out of him. Myral rests the end of her staff underneath his chin. Keith acknowledges her win.

They are both sweating and breathing hard, exhilarated. This is something they share, other than blood. She gives him a hand to his feet.

“Well done,” she says. “Come on. I would like to see the Red Lion again. It has been a long time.”

“If you were the Red Paladin, and you’re still alive, how can I be…?” It’s a good question. Observant. Myral appreciates his curiosity, and that he tries to be respectful, intuiting a less than good story. But it dampens Myral’s joy from the fight.

She takes a deep breath. “When I confronted Zarkon, Haggar was there. She… she… broke our bond.”

Keith doesn’t know how to respond, horror in every line of his body, discomfort as he tries to figure out how to comfort her over something he can’t begin to understand. There’s horror- he can’t imagine what losing the Red Lion would be like.

“I’m s-“

“We were a lot like your team, you know,” Myral says suddenly. “I think with a few more years of experience you’ll be seamless. But,” she stops and considers, “we were friends. We shared the bond. But we weren’t family.” She smiles sadly. “Maybe you won’t make our mistakes.”

They stop at the hangar door. Keith waits respectfully while Myral takes a deep breath.

Then, on the other side, is Red.

The last time Myral saw her was outside the Summer Palace. Then, Myral had been able to feel the extension of the Red Lion’s forelegs like her own hands. Now, Myral stands in front of her and feels nothing.

“Is she alright?” Myral asks, trying to put the fear and pain from the last moments of their bond out of mind. She feels colder than usual.

“Fine,” he says plainly. “We took a rough hit a little while ago. Crashed right into a swamp. There was mud in her wiring, but we got her fixed up.”

His expression is soft. She hasn’t seen that on him yet. He looks like Ryou Kogane like this, but there’s also… Myral chuffs a soft laugh when she realizes.

“I can’t believe your father was right,” she says.

Keith looks genuinely puzzled.

“You do have my chin.”

He unconsciously reaches up to rub at it musingly. It’s the start of something- the tiniest bit of acceptance.

Myral wants to bottle this moment and keep it close at hand for the rest of her days.

* * *

 

Zarkon is dead, and he is still interfering with her life.

They had been doing so _well_.

“Zarkon was your _WHAT_?” Keith yells.

“My brother,” Myral repeats calmly.

Her son’s temper visibly boils over, and he stomps from the room. Myral does not go after him. She stays, sitting alone and cold as she contemplates what this will mean for their relationship.

Over the next few quintants, Keith comes to her with new, shouted revelations.

“Zarkon was my uncle?”

“Lotor is my cousin?”

“I killed my uncle?”

“My cousin is trying to kill me?”

“I’m next in the line of succession?”

Each time, she answers them, and then her son storms away without another word.

Her visits to the castleship are always short. She will leave soon, and her son is not even speaking to her. She doesn’t want to leave like this, but the choice may not rest with her.

Shiro comes to her. “I always heard the in-laws were supposed to be bad, but I never thought my brother-in-law would be an evil, alien, intergalactic emperor.” He shrugs exaggeratedly. Myral laughs. She doesn’t know how he manages to be so blasé when Keith keeps yelling and running off. Then again, it’s always been clear which of the two of them has the calmer head.

For once, Keith comes to her.

Myral is playing against Shiro in a _video game_. Myral and the gathered paladins are yelling positively obscene things at the screen, though Myral is yelling because she is losing and the others are yelling to encourage Shiro to yell obscenities.

She sets the controller aside. Pidge swoops down to grab it, smacking Lance’s hand aside as she does so. Myral brushes off the legs of her suit and moves to join Keith in the doorway. Myral should be embarrassed to say such things in front of her child, but Keith is an adult and a Paladin of Voltron.

They walk side by side through the hallway. Myral is curious but lets their silence be. Their destination ends up being the kitchen. Myral takes a seat at the table, and Keith presses a cup of tea into her hands.

“I lost my head,” he admits. “I’m sorry.”

Myral can tell he has talked to Shiro. She takes a sip of the tea, tacitly accepting his apology.

 “I thought you knew,” she offers. Myral thought that Allura or Coran surely would have told him by now.

Keith traces the handle of his mug. He’s either gathering his thoughts or his courage. Myral suspects they’ll get to what really bothers him soon.

“They’re horrible people,” Keith says, eventually, “but I killed my own family.”

Myral sets down her cup, aware that this is a new issue for Keith and a very old one for Myral.

“I would have killed my brother,” she says, “and mourned him as I crushed his skull.”

Keith’s body language doesn’t change, though his eyebrows scrunch together. Even knowing he’s not alone, familicide is a bitter draught.

“I couldn’t even be the Black Paladin. How am I supposed to be a King?” The line of his shoulders is as downturned as his frown.

Myral reaches over and lays a hand on his shoulder as she has seen Shiro do. He does not shrug her off, and for Myral, that is a new victory.

 “I trained in statecraft for years. That question has no answer. You must only do your best.”

Keith reaches up and touches her hand briefly. Myral’s heart grows warm at the simple gesture.

* * *

 

Winning does not bring back her planet, her lion, or her team. The universe is free, but for Myral, only one good thing has come of this: her son gets to go home.

Even if Myral is sad to see him go.

Myral has known that he wants to go home. All the paladins do. It is past time for them to reunite and meet each others’ families. Keith has overdue respects to pay to the grandparents who raised him. He wants to find his father. Like Lance, he wants to walk underneath a blue sky again. But most of all, Keith talks of showing his partners the view of the stars from the desert.

Myral has not thought of what winning would look like. Yet, here she is, Queen of All Galra, Doom and her Colonies. The fighting is done, and the hard part has just begun. There is work to do; Myral must restructure an empire into a free system.

But for now, Myral must say goodbye to her son. She knew this was coming when he changed the laws of succession and more or less threw the crown at her, but it still hurts.

Myral clutches her son to her. He is still so small.

 “You’ll come back to visit, won’t you? You’ll always have a place here.”

Keith pulls away from  her gently.

“I’ll stay in contact, I promise. It’s not forever. We’re still Paladins of Voltron, Mom.  And I’ll come visit, someday. I’ve always wanted to know where I came from.”

In a reversal of roles, it is Myral who stays on the steps of the palace and watches her son leave her. She is sad, but she does not mourn.

Her comm beeps. Myral answers it, a little frustrated that she must return to her duty so quickly.

“Hi, Myral!” On her comm display, she can see Lance with Hunk at his side. They’re both smiling. “We just want to let you know that we’ll make sure that Keith calls you!”

“Did you call my mother?” That’s Keith’s indignant voice in the background. “We haven’t even left atmo yet.”

“Someone has to make sure you call her!”

“What if you forget?” Hunk chimes in.

“I’m not going to forget my own _mother_ ,” Keith says exasperatedly. Myral hears a scuffle as first Lance, then Hunk disappear from view. Finally, Keith sticks his head in front of the camera. “Bye, Mom. I love you. I’ll call you soon.”

Smiling, Myral wipes tears from her eyes as the call ends.

Her son is alive, and well, and free.

He will return to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then Keith finds his father in the custody of GG, because they totally kidnapped him.  
> I've got another fic in the works that explains shiro and keith's relationship a little better. Suffice it to say, shiro is the much younger half brother of keith's father.   
> once again, cherryandsisters.tumblr.com definitely the lines about keith being so small compared to myral come from them so   
> http://cherryandsisters.tumblr.com/post/156894413709/let-keith-meet-his-huge-galra-mom
> 
> This didn't make the final cut, but I though I'd leave it here anyway
> 
> Myral has already had the pleasure of meeting her son’s partners, but Hunk and Lance’s families have yet to meet Keith. Myral is given to understand that it is tradition for families to embarrass their children with stories and pictures of their childhood. Myral trusts that Shiro will take over this most noble of duties for her.


End file.
